Floral Challis Belted Dress – Vogue 8915

I love my virtual sewing sisterhood!!! One of my sewsisters gifted me with this (and 18 other) patterns. She had been lucky enough to stumble upon a massive 300+ pattern find and was giving away the duplicates. Isn’t that sweet?! Vogue 8915 is one of the patterns I picked because it looked like a comfy easy breezy summer dress.Thankfully I was right!

This floral challis fabric caught my eye as I was shopping online and I ordered it. I as surprised by the scale when it arrived but I still liked the pattern and it had a nice feel. I didn’t have a project in mind when I ordered this fabric. My mind first went to a maxi dress or a maxi skirt to show off the scale of the pattern. Then I consideredB5886 as it has been on my To-Sew list for a while, but I was concerned that the scale of the pattern would get lost in the smaller pieces and pleating. Finally I thought “Hey, what was in that package of patterns I just received?”. V8915 jumped out at me. Even though I was a little concerned that the pattern was too busy for this simple pattern I decided to go for it and I think it turned out great!

Total Cost: Technically this dress was free as I purchased this fabric with the giftcard from my Pattern Review Travel contest win and the pattern was gifted to me. However if I had purchased the pattern and fabric the cost would have been $18.38.

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9 replies to Floral Challis Belted Dress – Vogue 8915

Hi, your dress is very nice. I have this pattern and thought about making it however, I am always stuck on what size to cut. Would you mind telling me what size you cut? Any help would be very much appreciated. Thanks,

Sure charlene! So for me the trick with Big 4 patterns is to always go by the finished measurements on the tissue (they can also be found on the website for mccalls, vogue and Butterick).
I cut a medium based on my 36″ bust and 41″ hips. The finished measurements for a medium are 41.5″ bust and 42″ hip. This allows for 5″ of ease (or wiggle room) in the bust which is needed for a loose flowy fit. There is only 1″ of ease in the hips, which is fine for me because I wanted it to be more fitted at the bottom. If I’d wanted it loose I could’ve graded between sizes or used a narrower seam allowance below the waist line.
Hope this helps

I love your blog and I am your size ( a bit) without the bust. Anyway I am wondering if I could put in elastic at the waist line , do you think there is enough ease? (sort of like using a drawstring..) Thanks!

Thank you Cat . I think you could. I would just determine where you wanted to and the elastic and cut the front and back pattern there. Then you could add an inch and a quarter to the new top and bottom and make a casing.

Cat I would split the front and back pattern pieces at my natural waist (or where you want to add the elastic) and add 1.25 inches to the new bodice and skirt pieces. Then sew the bodice to the skirt with a 1.25 seam allowance. Next sew the raw edges of the casing together using a 3/8 seam allowance but be sure to leave about a 1-2″ opening. Then thread 3/4″ non-roll elastic through the casing and sew the elastic ends together making sure that it isn’t twisted. Now close the 1-2″ gap and your done! You can then fold the casing up and topstitch it to the bodice but I’m terrible at that so I skip it.